A New Jersey democrat is using her political muscle to force citizens across the state to register their bicycles with the Division of Motor Vehicles. The ridiculous maneuver would help the state offset its $10 billion budget deficit by enforcing a $10 per license plate fee and fines up to $100 for those, including children, caught riding unregistered bikes.

Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex) said balancing the state’s budget isn’t her motivation for the outlandish proposal; it’s protecting senior citizens from getting run over by kids on bikes.

Affixing license plates to every bicycle in the state would help these vulnerable senior citizens identify and rattle off the license plate numbers from the kids’ bikes to the police, ensuring the rascals are brought to justice, says Tucker.

Tucker’s proposal has been met with opposition by a diverse group of interests including bicyclists, environmentalists, business owners and even her own colleagues in the State House.

“That’s an outrage, for sure,” said Paige Hiemier, vice-president of the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition. “Basically, it’s outrageous for a number of reasons, and most of them are: Who is the legislation aimed at? Who’s going to administer it? How are they going to pay for it? Who’s going to stop the bicyclists and check their registration?”

An effort to cut down on the number of homeless pets in one Texas city has prompted officials to slap pet owners with a $75 sin tax to help deter their furry friends from breeding. Failure to register your pet’s new litter within 14 days “could result in fines and penalties,” states El Paso’s new animal ordinance.

City officials have also limited dogs and cats to 2 planned or unplanned pregnancies a year in an effort to prevent shelters from being overwhelmed. Professional breeders complain that the city’s crackdown on careless pet owners unfairly punishes their responsible businesses that provide in-demand pets to welcoming new homes.

El Paso Animal Services received $250,000 from the city council to step-up its enforcement efforts that will include monitoring newspapers and other media to ensure citizens selling puppies and kittens have registered their new litters and paid the sin tax for their pets’ intentional or unintentional ‘romantic encounters.’

Here’s a story that should make your head spin: Officials at an elementary school in N.J. say the best way to ensure young children steer clear of drugs is to make them afraid of being randomly drug tested:

A proposal to conduct random drug tests of young students in one New Jersey town is raising some eyebrows.

Students at Belvidere Elementary School could be adding drug testing to their list of lessons when they move into middle school.

The Board of Education will vote Wednesday on a plan to randomly test sixth, seventh and eighth graders to see if they are under the influence of drugs. School administrators said they were confident the proposal would pass.

Elementary School Principal Sandra Szabocsik said school officials want to use the testing “as a deterrent.”

“We’re hoping that the students if they’re at say a party or someone’s house or just hanging out somewhere, that they’ll say ‘I don’t want to get involved in drinking or using any drug because tomorrow could be a drug testing day,'” she told CBS 2′s Christine Sloan.

The program is voluntary and both parents and students must consent. School officials said it was important to note that if a student tested positive, they would not be suspended or have the results sent to the police.

Instead, those students would get counseling or even be referred to a rehab facility …

It looks like motorists in Tacoma, Wash., have a tough dilemma on their hands. Do they respect the parking laws of the city or the wishes of Subway?

“I’m wondering if Subway is sending these out and trying to override municipal parking regulations all across the nation,” asks ‘Justin,’ who submitted the image of dueling parking signs to Consumerist.com.

Las Vegas police say comatose Takara Davis must be in court on March 6 to face charges of jaywalking. We say, "Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Takara!"

There are no limitations as to how far nanny state bureaucrats will go to enforce some of their most nonsensical laws. Case in point: Las Vegas police last week hand-delivered a jaywalking ticket to a comatose 13-year-old girl because it seems that justice needed to be served immediately for this heinous crime.

“[The police officer] said, ‘Takara was jaywalking. She has got to go to court on March 6th,'” said Takara Davis’ mother, Kellie Obong. “If she was jaywalking, then she was jaywalking. But maybe you give it to me at a later time. Don’t give it to me when they are rushing her into the operating room.”

The Metropolitan Police Department issued a press statement justifying the jaywalking citation and the manner in which it was handled, completely discounting the family’s emotional state as young Takara clings to life:

“Our officers conduct themselves in a professional and compassionate way. We wouldn’t do anything deliberately insensitive.”

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that one of the most pressing issues for Las Vegas cops these days is to hassle comatose teenagers over petty jaywalking violations? Share your thoughts with Las Vegas’ finest morons:

NYS Assemblyman demonstrates what can happen when 'average' citizens drink alcohol excessively. Ironically, he seems to assume most New Yorkers are already hardcore alcoholics, otherwise, he wouldn't be proposing mandatory breathalyzers be installed in their automobiles.

The last time we heard from Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn), he was desperately trying to ban the use of salt in New York restaurants, followed by getting drunk to the point of vomiting on ‘Four Loko’ to prove why it also needs to be banned. Now, Ortiz wants to install breathalyzers in every New Yorker’s automobile by 2015.

Plain and simple, Ortiz does not trust New Yorkers to drink responsibly. Instead of targeting his efforts, state resources and millions in taxpayer dollars on keeping unrepentant alcoholics and repeat offenders off the roads, he prefers punishing responsible drivers and drinkers with Big Brother technology that has a zero tolerance policy towards alcohol and their use of personal judgment.